Baghdad Diaries

This diary, compiled by Gunner Palace directors Mike Tucker and Petra Epperlein, consists of notes from the production of the film in 2003-2004 and emails sent from 2/3 FA soldiers during their 410 day deployment to Baghdad and Najaf.

September 06, 2003

See No Evil

We arrived in Amman. The armored cars that F. said were arriving tonight are sitting at an airport somewhere in Europe. That means that F. and I will drive in with a taxi to Baghdad.

September 12, 2003

Minor Combat

Heh P: Good news and bad news. First the good news: The 1AD PAO has set me up with 2/3 FA, an artillery unit from Germany based in one of Uday Hussein’s palaces-or what is left of it. It sounds like something right out of “Gone with the Wind"-plus, it's sitting in the hottest sector in Baghdad, so I think we'll get what we need. Of course, the fact that is has a pool doesn't hurt either.

September 16, 2003

Uncontrolled Explosion

Heh P: Finally found email. Lots going on here. I think I should stay as long as possible. Pretty safe, although the Palace came under mortar attack two nights ago. At first, I thought it was controlled EOD explosion. By the time I got to my room, a third round hit and all the guys were just standing around like nothing had happened. In fact, somebody found a rat in the hooch which demanded their full attention--never mind the mortars.

September 19, 2003

Reality Check

The LTC and the Chaplain invited me to a fallen soldier memorial at 4/27 FA. A young soldier named Kevin Kimmerly was killed by an RPG a few days before.

It's Army tradition to have a last roll call at a soldier's memorial. They call out roll and soldiers answer with "here" as their names are called. When they came to Kimmerly, there was no reply. His named was called twice more, answered only by the quiet sobbing of his fellow soldiers.

September 24, 2003

One Night in Baghdad

Routine has settled in: Day=Patrol in the Sun. Night=Raid Houses.

It's getting a little intense. The other night, while raiding the home of suspected bomb builders, one of the suspects started talking to me as he was detained. He pleaded to me, "I'm a journalist. You get this wrong. They call this freedom?"

September 26, 2003

Helmet Head

What´s going on, I didn´t hear from you since Wednesday... bombs are blowing up left and right, ....what are you doing ?! I hope you stay away from wars in the future. Petra

The guys I am with got hit by four IEDs on Weds--including the one that hit an Iraqi bus--many civilians dead, four police wounded and 2 MPs wounded. An uparmored going down a busy shopping street was the target.

September 28, 2003

Jackass Goes to War

Over the weeks, a rhythm has developed. Sleep late to avoid the heat. Try to eat an MRE. Drink water and lots of it. Smoke fake Marlboros from the Haji stand and wait for something to happen, anything. A patrol. An escort. An OP.

September 29, 2003

Burger King

P: We were driving to BIAP the other day---someone cooked up a reason so we could go to the PX and Burger King (believe it or not). We took orders for something like 50 Whoppers. On the way down the airport road traffic suddenly stopped because there was an IED on the road. As we pulled over, we heard that a sniper was engaging the convoys ahead of us. All that for a Whopper.

October 10, 2003

Planet Baghdad

October 16, 2003

I'll be Home Soon Honey

Petra and I went to Giessen last week to visit 2/3 families. While in Baghdad, I made an effort to get guys to shout-out to their spouses and kids so we could edit a short video for the families in Giessen.

I feel a lot for these families. My Dad left for Vietnam on a troop ship on my first birthday. I thought of my mother, who spent three tours waiting for a doorbell to ring or a car door to slam. I spent the first sixteen years of my life around the army--and then another six, from age 17-23, in the Army Reserve. I guess, soldiers like Wilf remind me of myself and seeing these families and their quiet struggles, brings back memories of another time, another war.

October 18, 2003

I Killed The Rat

A few weeks after I left the Palace, SPC Stuart Wilf and SPC Tom Susdorf , my former roommates, started sending me regular updates about life in Baghdad.

Battle Buddies: Tom Susdorf (L) Stuart Wilf (R)

Stuart writes:

Hey Dude, all kinds of stuff blowing up everywhere, two of our guys got hit by a mortar last night (three impacted in front of Hellraiser's building), we've had over 10 mortars impact on our compound and SF’s over the past 4 days. Car bombs are supposed to hit in Adhamiya today, so we're all ready.

October 23, 2003

Potato Gun

Stuart writes:

Lots of stuff still blowing up here. This dude made a potato gun-like rocket launcher the other day and tried to shoot it at the palace from across the river, but he was retarded and it blew up about 5 feet in front of him.

November 03, 2003

Ben Colgan

Three weeks away from Baghdad, I received an email from 2/3 informing me that LT Ben Colgan was killed. The news hit me hard. Just weeks before, I had been out with him and his Tombraiders when an IED exploded behind the Abu Hanifa Mosque—one of two IEDs that were meant for his patrol. He was killed in the same spot.

I knew where he died, but I also knew where he lived. He came from the Seattle area like me. I knew the kind of house he grew up in and the landscape he dreamt of going home to.

November 07, 2003

War by Remote

I heard about Ben's death on Monday--I spent half the day looking at images of him in Baghdad--and the other half trying to get authorization to fly on an AMC flight to Iraq the next day. In the end, it was impossible to get to Baghdad on short notice.

November 10, 2003

The Memorial

November 18, 2003

Multiple Launch Donkeys

Tom writes:

Yesterday I passed an IED that didnt hit me, but got the convoy on the road behind us. They were MPs and the driver was the only one hurt (I was driving our convoy). That shook me for a while. When they run out of conventional weapons I’m sure we will see some off the wall stuff like the donkeys. Well not much else going on except a volley of 2 or 3 mortars a night now.
Tom

December 11, 2003

Survey Attacked

Message from 2/3:

BREAK BREAK BREAK (survey) and 2 Time reporters hit by grenade need medevac more to follow...........

December 14, 2003

Saddam Found in Hole

December 15, 2003

Paris Hilton

Stuart writes:

Tom's sitting next to me, he's an idiot. He passed up Paris Hilton's phone number! He could have got it but he's a dumb boy. But we do still have the possibility of Brittney Spears phone number. Nevermind, he lost that one also. Dumb.

December 24, 2003

Wilf’s Dream

Stuart Writes:

I had a great Christmas dream last night. Our families came to visit for Christmas, it was like family day at basic training, only at war instead. My dad and little brother came driving up in this redneck motorhome, and my dad started unloading cartons of cigarettes from it (he doesn't smoke, I don't get that part). So I went into the TOC to do something, and this mortar hit right outside of the TOC Everyones families were crowding around the crater pointing to it and saying, "Wow! Look at that! Neat!"

December 27, 2003

Person of the Year

On December 10, Jim Nachtwey and Mike Weisskopf from Time Magazine were wounded while covering 2/3 for Time's Person of the Year feature. That feature came out on December 21st. Three soldiers from 2/3 were on the cover, including one of my subjects, SPC Billie Grimes, a young female medic from Indiana. Wilf, was the centerfold.

January 01, 2004

New Year, Old War

Tom writes:

The Time article was ok, but not many people were thrilled with the satellite photo of the palace. Survey (Tombraider) is kinda passive on the whole thing. A mortar round hit our hooch wall last night, scared me. No injs/however some damage to HMMWVs and other equipment. I hope things are good at home. CSM Cooke was a great guy. Take care and HAPPY NEW YEAR.

January 05, 2004

Coming Back?

Right now, I am trying to get permission to come back around Jan 20th for about ten days--AF will try to get me papers to fly as it doesn't look too safe to drive in from Jordan.

January 12, 2004

Jessica Lynch

Stuart writes:
Think I could learn the Star Spangled Banner before you get back. I already know the beginning of it--I think that might fit in nicely. But I also thought about the whole playing naked thing. That would be awesome.

February 14, 2004

Back at the Palace

F and M&D drove me to Adhamiya today. Everybody is still here, but it feels very different. When you drive in, the first thing you see is the Alpha Humvee that was hit in December. We went out back and sat in the sun next to a very sad looking pool. It's heated, but the novelty seems to have worn off. The soldiers seem spent. Too many IEDs. Too many attacks. Too much stress. Everybody just looks forward to redeploying in the Spring. Some of them are already packing. Everybody is counting the days.

February 19, 2004

Mohammed Tyson

I was out at Charlie Battery last night when Supercop brought in Mohammed Tyson zip-stripped--he was the young Iraqi interpreter that I filmed with the detainee last time. They say he has been taking photographs of vehicles and passing intelligence on to an insurgent cell. If it is true, he is responsible for at least four deaths.

February 27, 2004

Krieg Lite

One thing that I've never seen mentioned in the news is that US forces are not allowed to drink during their deployment except during R&R. I know there is some illicit drinking going on--you can buy a beer right across the street at the banana stand and I assume liquor makes it in--but overall, this is a dry deployment--the first alcohol free American War: Krieg Lite.

When it is 120 degrees outside, beer tastes good and the Army knows that so they have sent thousands of cases of near beer to Iraq.

March 01, 2004

We Live in this Movie

This has become their movie, not mine—each person with their own reference. For the older officers and NCOs it's M*A*S*H. They brought aloha shirts for poolside BBQs. For others, it's Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. You can see it in the way they ride in their Humvees: one foot hanging out the door—helicopters with wheels. For the teenagers, it's Jackass Goes to War.

As much as they project cultural icons into their lives, through my viewfinder you can see that they are defining their own experience; a movie different than anything anyone has seen before. The other day, while recording freestyles, a young SPC looked at the camera, charged his weapon and said,"For y'all this is just a show, but we live in this movie."

Update: Some of the war tapes that the soldiers from Gunner Palace sent me from Iraq will be used on the dvd to tell their story--it could be the first war movie shot by soldiers themselves--I'm curious how it will be perceived.

March 03, 2004

Kadhimiya

I was drinking coffee this morning when three large explosions hit up the river. I went into the TOC and heard on the net the Kadhimiya mosque was bombed with dozens killed.

It's upsetting-- this happened as people were simply marching in a procession to the mosque.

Extended!

April 15, 2004

The Uprising

Tom writes:

We have another KIA and 2 WIA in the last 4 days. Bravo Btry soldier was the KIA. We were involved in a 6 hr firefight yesterday night and we have now found out we are extended in Iraq for at least 3 more months. We are going to move to another location to break the enemies back and corner him off. I cant say when or where we are going but its not going to be easy. -Tom

On April 5, 2004, SGT David McKeever was killed in an RPG attack. In the same timeframe, a young female soldier died at 2/3 after she was ambushed. The LT that replaced Ben Colgan was shot in the head, but his Kevlar saved him and he will recover. Others were wounded.

April 17, 2004

Rockstar

Stuart writes:

Of what I've gathered, this is what's going on: most of the ICDC are screwbags--have been taking pictures of the compound and distributing them to people that want us dead. We're supposed to have an attack on us real soon here, they want to raid the palace is the intel we've got.

All the new guys are here, and they're pissing me off by walking around like they've been here for a year, and they've been here for a week. I hate hearing them talk about "well 600 isn't really that many people to die when you think about it.”

When 4 of those 600 were people you knew, it's way too many.

I’ve got 5 months and 13 day's left in the Army, then I'm off to be a rockstar. Forget college. Forget jobs. Forget growing up, I'm GOING to be a rockstar.That's about all I can think of right now.

Wilf

April 18, 2004

Mortar in the Pool

May 09, 2004

Orders for Najaf

This was sent about a year to the day that 2/3 deployed.

Stuart writes:

we're on our way to Najaf in the next 72 hours. Our unit, which has been here the past year (one year, 2 hours and 25 minutes as of now), will now deploy to one of Iraq's 3 hot spots to continue to die for Iraq.

This isn't the life for me.

This life is killing me.

May 23, 2004

365 Days

2/3 has been in Iraq for a year now. They expect to be gone at least another two months. After seeing this war firsthand, I don't have any easy answers. In fact, I may have no answers. With each trip to Iraq, my opinions have become dulled--it's all become personal. When I watch the news, I think of people I know in Baghdad. I think of the families I've had dinner with, the friends that I've drank endless cups of tea with and the soldiers that I've rolled with. I worry about all of them. During the last year, if anything, I've learned that war isn't what most of us think it is: it has nothing to do with what most of us know and it's definitely not what you see on the news.

I've asked soldiers what they think about the war and their answers are surprisingly simple. After a year, the war isn't about WMDs, democracy, Donald Rumsfeld or oil. It's about them. Simple. They just want to finish the job they were sent to do so they can go home.